SO...Having spent hours fixing Verizon issues (and 54m+ on phone)...
...I actually discovered a CSR who was kind enough to flat out tell me the FIOS-GS1100 Router is "only meant to work" with WiFi for ranges of "ten feet" or less (!).
Versus the 325' it is advertised at (http://www.verizon.com/home/fios-fastest-internet/#equipment-installation?incid=srch_res_quantumgateway&RichTextMedia=yes is a start); in the event they amend that, I have both a screen capture & some of their promotional materials around boasting as much. So, plausible deniability is getting like a rubber band with them: stretched *too* far, and it snaps.
And yes, I know: "with up to 325 feet in range" is their qualification. Per the Reasonable Man doctrine, I suspect if they ALSO disclosed to their subscribers that the same piece of equipment was only *really* intended to work for 10 feet and no more, *perhaps* clients & prospective clients would think twice before letting Verizon fob off this useless piece of garbage on them...or am I just way out in left field on that one...?
The reason I'm posting this so late (despite having to be up in a few hours) is because Verizon Internet 'went away' -- as in, the light on the router went from Good Green to "Yuck Yellow/Royally Screwed Red" (depending upon the router: I have TWO of them, both directly from Verizon, the Actiontec MR424WR rev I, and the latest FIOS-GS1100 as well: both were functional (the former far more so than the latter), yet neither saw the WAN via coax...hence, all reasonable troubleshooting measures on my end, release/renew WAN DHCP, all that jazz, and, of course, an interminable period spent holding along with a near hour-long conversation with tier-one tech support because I have work to do and am dependant upon having a reasonable Internet connection to be able to do so effectively from home, so...that's how I got to spend my Friday night/Saturday morning. Now going on over FIVE HOURS wasted doing their job, while their CSR kept insisting I was "using third party" router(s) -- and had no idea what "ping" was -- I mean, *really*? -- and after the first half-hour of idiocy, I was in no mood to explain networking basics to them. Not like I'm paid to train their techs/CSRs/Support.
As they routinely do the, "This call may be monitored for quality assurance" bit, the declaration of neither party having a reasonable expectation of privacy was instantly applicable; TL;DR summary: while I did inform them I was recording the conversation as well, I was under no obligation to do so. Kept things nice & above-board & legal, either way :)
So...Anyone having issues with their latest router? Having to make extra purchases from Verizon because of this? I can only counsel teaming up & going for a class-action lawsuit. I'm more than happy to release the recording I made: as it is, I ought to be billing VERIZON my hourly rate for the amount of time I had to spend dealing with issues brought about initially & primarily because of their false advertising, and the troubles that caused me, trying to find a way of making the new router have the same reach the old one did (which covered an entire story without issue, while the new one couldn't hold a stable connection past 30' -- and NOW I know *why*); all that time wasted, plus the time spent on things tonight, having to miss sleep to deal with this absurdity, and that they deliberately gave me a shoddy product which, I now know, they KNEW from the beginning was trash.
Lest there be folly or doubt, I'll be glad to release the recording (I'm hardly an 'audio wiz' person, so I need to edit out the parts where I give out PII/Account info/numbers & such, so that'll take me a bit) to you for your edification; hell! Odds are, once I've redacted PII, I'll just release it anyway, perhaps on YouTube, with a bunch of stills of deceptive adverts of theirs ;)
They already stole my time (and time is money); as everyone who's been on the wrong end of dealings with them knows, there is NO chance they'll ever remunerate me in any fashion whatsoever, so I suppose if there *is* anything *I* can do to help stop them from screwing customers, and ripping off the less-informed/less tech-savvy folk among us, it's really no trouble. Hopefully publication of this information will help.
It will take me a bit of time to edit that snippet out of the recording, and given how much time I've already been forced to devote to this enterprise (where *I* am paying *THEM* for the privilege of dealing with & fixing their failures -- what an honor!), I'm not exactly possessed of a huge amount of it, so if interested, ask.
I suppose if they aggravate me further, my next phone call to them will be one after I've already made a contract with ANYONE else who serves my area (slim pickings, I know), at which point they can kiss my monies goodbye, as it'll be to cancel.
OK. Time to catch a couple of hours sleep. I don't check in here a lot, though I'll make an effort to in the event anyone is looking for some audio.
Very Sincerely,
~J
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